I guess it comes down to, why does legality matter? It's just some people who said things will be one way. This land, that tree was there long before anyone 'legally owned' that land. What does a piece of paper saying the man owns the land mean to the tree? Nothing, and that sign meant nothing either.

The bottom of the sign is "signed" "du Pont de Nemours". du Pont (or however you want to capitalize it, the family changes it in each branch), owns/ed a lot of land in northern Delaware and lower PA. Many parks are formally du Pont estates. Not sure if they have any street cred up in Ohio though. I wouldn't doubt it.

Wonder how it will look in "x" amount of years (hopefully a very long time) when someone cuts it down....be a pretty interesting cross section if they happened to cut right where the sign was "consumed".

"...none were more dangerous than the Great Willow; his heart was rotten, but his strength was green; and he was cunning, and a master of winds, and his song and thought ran through the woods on both sides of the river."

This makes me think of that George Carlin bid about saving the planet and the the thought that plastic is somehow going to harm the planet when in reality is just going to be the earth and plastic. hard to explain what i mean but yeah this pic reminded me of that.

I see it as a slow consumption of abnormal for the preservation of the natural state of things. Think of it as a time lapse over years and years- slowly creeping the entire way ove the sign until all that remains is an ordinary knot.